Favorite Schools

Favorite Teams

Safety netting erected at Hersheypark Arena, 12 years after last Hershey Bears' game

Hersheypark Arena safety netting

Workers erected spectator safety netting at Hersheypark Arena's east end earlier this month and will do likewise at the west end soon. According to Hershey Entertainment and Resorts, the nets were put up to protect employees and spectators at the former home of the Hershey Bears, which now hosts youth hockey, figure skating and the Lebanon Valley College men's hockey team.
(Dave Sottile | dsottile@pennlive.com)

More than 12 years after the Hershey Bears played their last game there, Hersheypark Arena is finally getting protective safety netting at each end of the rink.

Workers installed the black netting at the arena's east end a few weeks ago and will do likewise at the west end before the end of July.

Hershey fans shouldn't read too much into the news, though. Officials say the nets' presence doesn't signal any upcoming preseason AHL game at the historic venue, which serves as the Bears' back-up practice rink and home to youth hockey, figure skating and the Lebanon Valley College men's hockey team.

Hersheypark Arena, which opened in 1936, is owned by Hershey Entertainment and Resorts, which also owns the Bears.

"We bought new safety nets last year for Giant Center, so we took the ones from Giant Center and installed them at Hersheypark Arena," said Kevin Stumpf, general manager of the entertainment complex. "We're using those nets to keep our employees and guests safe.

"The east end of Hersheypark Arena is a place where many of our Hersheypark employees check in and check out each day. The netting helps keep them safe."

The Bears moved across the complex parking lot to Giant Center to start the 2002-03 season, the very year NHL and AHL arenas were ordered to erect safety nets at each end of the playing surface. The edict came after 13-year-old

Brittanie Cecil was struck in the head by a puck at a Columbus Blue Jackets game March 16 and died two days later. She was the NHL's first documented spectator fatality as a result of being hit by a puck.

The final AHL game at Hersheypark Arena was May 3, 2002, a 7-1 playoff loss to the Houston Aeros in what was a four-game series sweep.

Bears president and general manager Doug Yingst has long expressed a desire for his team to stage another event at its former home, but said nothing is imminent.

"We could not play a regular-season game there again. That just won't happen," Yingst said. "At some point, though, we'd like to entertain thoughts of playing a preseason game there, but it won't be happening anytime soon."

Both Yingst and Stumpf said coordinating schedules between the Bears and their NHL affiliate, the Washington Capitals, is the biggest stumbling block to playing preseason hockey in the Old Barn, as the place is lovingly referred to by its many admirers.

"It would cool to play another Bears' game there for historical purposes," Stumpf said. "Hersheypark Arena was such a great hockey venue for so many years. There wasn't a bad seat in the house, but now we have Giant Center, which is an unbelievable place to see game."